The Elemental War of Rings
by Nari Serpens
Summary: Blaze Hurt had everything he wanted in life, a loving family, friends, awesome Firebending skills the list went on, but when his own father betrays him he looses all of that for a life of pain and remorse. And yet, he is given a shot at redemption when he finds himself in Middle Earth with those who used to be his friends. The only problem: they don't want him in the fellowship.
1. A Fire Once Started

**Hey there, my name is Nari Serpens, and thank you for taking the time to read this story. This is a crossover story between Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Lord of the Rings, as I'm sure you know. However there are some things that need to be cleared up first.**

 **1: While the story is about some benders falling into Middle Earth it is important to note that they will not do this for several chapters I cannot say how many for sure but I expect that it will be around three or four. This is done to provide backstory that is quite essential to the narrative.**

 **2: It is also important to say that I welcome constructive criticism with open arms, but any kind of review that is not telling me that I should quit is also fine, any questions you might have will be answered at the beginning of the next chapter, even if that answer is something along the lines of: "Wait and find out, it will be addressed later in the story."**

Chapter 1: A Fire Once Started

Blaze Hurt thought that his weekend would be just an average sneak off to the Sanctuary and train with his friends. Blaze was a firebender living in a small city named Xiaofang Guize, but every week, Saturday through Monday, he would sneak off to a clearing in the woods. There he would meet his three best friends: Nancy Shou, Jack Hone, and Suzushi Kaze. Nancy was a waterbender from a small village next to the ocean, she too had to sneak out to come to the Sanctuary. Jack was a earthbender from a huge city overlooking a canyon, unlike his friends he was perfectly free to go wherever he wanted for however long, he joked that this was because his mom didn't care for him. But the truth was his mother was very busy all the time and as much as she loved him she knew he could look after himself. Suzushi or Suzi as her friends called her was obviously a airbender from a recently established monastery. At first she snuck out of the monastery but eventually the monks realized that her training with her friends was improving her skills and allowed her to continue, on several conditions. All four of them were nineteen years old.

Anyway Blaze had expected to go to train with them this morning but just as he was about to leave his father called him back. Blaze walked back to the kitchen where his father was sitting down with a strange look on his face.

"Son" he said in a business-like manner, "I've been wondering where you sneak off to every week."

"I…" Blaze started to say but his father cut him off.

"I've tried following you, having others try to track you down but your tracks vanish according to them"

"That's because…" again his father held up his hand for silence.

"But I have decided that it doesn't really matter where you go, it only matters that you don't today. Let me explain, these last few weeks our city has met together to discuss a growing problem, and I have become a major spokesperson in these debates. Today it is imperative that all of age men and women in this city be present to decide whether or not to accept the proposal that I have set forth. I'm sorry if this makes you late for whatever it is that you go and do over weekends but I need you there."

"I… I guess I can stay long enough for the vote. How long till it starts?"

"My speech begins in just over an hour, after that I will answer any final questions anyone has for me and then we will all vote. Should only take a couple hours."

"Ok, sure I'll come, then I'm leaving, this is very important too you know."

"Does it involve girls? Then I'd say you're right." His father joked and his mom looked over interested.

"No father it doesn't, well ok a little, well there's two girls but there is nothing romantic about it at all."

"Sure there isn't, anyway we need to leave soon so I'd better get ready I guess."

Blaze stood there for a second longer, there really wasn't any romance in his group but it didn't look like he was going to convince his father of that. Soon he and his parents left for the city square. Along the way he thought about what this might all be about. Something had to be very wrong for the entire city to be meeting together to discuss what to do about it. Xiaofang Guize had a council, but in bigger situations such as threats etc they would call the city together to vote. Blaze figured whatever it was he would side with his father's plan, after all he was his father. It was he who taught him how to firebend at first. The Hurt family was an old one, they had a tradition of passing down certain moves that their family had invented. Moves like the white whip, or the wall of fire, particularly difficult moves that were very painful if they landed. Soon they reached the city square and Blaze told his parents good luck, as his mother would be with his father while he gave his speech. Blaze went and sat down among the rest of the city people. They all seemed very tense. Blaze's father and mother along with a few others, supporters probably, walked onto the stage. When he began to talk Blaze realized what all this was about. It seemed that the "problem" what that in the aftermath of the war where the fire nation attacked the rest of the world, all the bending elements where once again considered equal. But it seemed that Blaze's father believed that fire was still the stronger element, and he had convinced the rest of the city of Xiaofang Guize of the same. Now he was calling for action, for the entire city to rise up as a holy army that would reset the world into the correct order. Firebenders, Earthbenders, Airbenders, Waterbenders, and finally nonbenders. He had plans for what jobs could be occupied by what kind of people. But the scariest part was that everyone seemed to treat every declaration he made about the way things should be had more truth in it then the laws of nature, and every piece of his plan he set forth was the best, most efficient, most worthy, plan anyone could conceive. All of this was due to his father's amazing oratory skills. Blaze had never heard a speech like it, but as good as his father's skills were it didn't change the fact that his father was wrong to suggest such a thing was right. It wasn't just untrue it was heresy. The very idea that one element could be greater than any others was plain evil. His father finished his speech and got a standing ovation, It seemed to Blaze that he was the only one in the entire city that was going to vote against his father's plan. This could not happen.

His father was taking questions now, every question posed to him was answered like he had rehearsed it. And none of the questions called him out of doing anything wrong the questions were all about how the army would be fed etc. Finally as the number of questions diminished Blaze began plucking up his courage to do what had to be done. Just as the questions finished up and the vote was about to be called Blaze raised his hand.

"My son you have a question?"

"Yes father: WHAT ARE YOU THINKING. There is a balance between the elements no one is greater than another. I can see that you do not see this and that I cannot convince you of it. Therefore, if you will insist on putting this plan of yours into action, then..." he had to work up his courage to do this: "then I CHALLENGE YOU TO AN AGNI KAI. If I win you have to give up this dream of yours, and it never is brought up again, without your leadership this rebellion is doomed. If you win, I will never try to stop you again, I can never join you but I will not stand in your way. What do you say?"

His father was speechless, he seemed shocked that his own son was not just against his cause, but willing to fight against his own father. But his son was going through much worse. He wasn't outraged or angry, he was sad. Sad that his father was going down a path that he had to oppose. But Blaze knew in his heart of hearts, that he had to fight his father, despite the pain it caused his soul. It hurt him to do this, he wished that there was another way to end this rebellion before it started, but there wasn't.

"I accept your challenge but you will find that I am more than a match for you." With that he swept away his podium from off the stand, and motioned for Blaze to join him. His mother and everyone else got off the podium as fast as they could while his father blasted away their chairs as they got up. Blaze stood at one end of the podium and his father stood at the other. They each took a stance, and his father launched the first attack, a normal fire blast attack, not very effective on its own but they could be launched rapid fire at an opponent. But Blaze had been training for over a year harder than anyone in his city. He dodged effortlessly and counterattacked. But even this attack hurt him to perform. He didn't want to attack his father, doing so hurt him worse than any attack his father could throw at him. Blaze had to dodge again as his father kept firing regular attacks, this time after landing Blaze launched a two handed attack, followed by two fire kick attacks. All three got extremely close to his father but none landed due to his father dodging them. And still Blaze was pained to be fighting his father, when he battled his friends he was always battling for fun, even if an accident happens and one of them got hurt Nancy knew how to heal with water, she was so good she had never left so much as a scar. But this was real, a battle till one combatant was severely burned. And this was a battle between father and son. Blaze loved his father, he had always been there for him. But now he was corrupted with a false idea, but it was still him.

Blaze was burned, not physically yet, though he knew that might come later, but he was torchered by having to fight his own father. He dodged another wave and spun close to the ground with his leg outstretched, this was intended to trip his father up so Blaze could finish quickly and as painlessly as possible, but his father anticipated the move and jumped launching several blasts that had to be dodged. Every time his father launched an attack, Blaze wanted to let it hit him, only the thought of how wrong his father was stopped him. Every time he threw an attack, he felt even worse and was torn between hoping it would land and hoping it would miss. His father landed but not perfectly, Blaze had seen this mistake in his skirmishes with his friends often enough to know how to exploit it. He fired two constant streams of fire, one at his father's head and one at his father's feet. His father was caught by surprise, he didn't have the time or stance to handle this, so he launched a quick blast at Blaze's hands and shielded his eyes. Both streams hit him but not for long enough to burn him. Blaze hadn't anticipated the move and was caught off guard, then his father decided to end the fight. He used one of the moves passed down in the Hurt family: the wall of fire. This move raised a, well, wall of fire in the middle of the stage, the flame was so dense no one could see through it. If blaze had been thinking straight he would have moved around so his father couldn't know where he was. But the blast to his hands, while not intense enough to burn, still hurt him both physically and mentally, and he wasn't fast enough. His father's next blast caught him in the face, though still not a burning blow to skin, his open eyes where a different story. Blaze quickly realized that for the moment at least, he couldn't see. But he could still hear. Growing up, he had always had good ears. And during his training sessions with his friends, they had all practiced fighting while blindfolded. This was a skill that he put into action now. The wall of fire died down, but when he saw his son's eyes he knew he had won.

He launched two rapid fire shots at his feet, and was surprised to behold that his son seemed to know they were coming. and sidestepped them. Blaze now knew where his father was. And now his earlier qualms about fighting his father were gone. By the rules of an Agni Kai blinding your opponent whether temporary or permanent, so long as it lasted for several minutes, was counted as a burn, thereby a win, But his father was still attacking, meaning that he didn't care and was going to continue. Blaze charged a very powerful attack often referred to as a firecomet. This was an attack that looked normal to the naked eye, save for its size because it was bigger than a man's head, but exploded on contact. But his father simply fired a more concentrated attack at it and it exploded prematurely. Then his father seemed to get an idea, and he put it into action. Blaze heard the move and despair filled his heart. It could only be one move: the white whip. This move was a intensified whip in fire only a centimeter in diameter jutting out from two of the user's fingers. this whip was so hot with concentration that it appeared white. Blaze knew that the move had been known to burn its way through steel swords in seconds, worse there was no way to dodge it forever, you either had to break the user's attention or block it with an equally intense heat, or cooling agent. And with his eyes blinded there was no way he could do either of those things. He screamed in pure tortured agony as the two streams of heat bored into his flesh, searing his skin. If his father had drawn the whips tighter he could easily killed him, and Blaze almost wanted him to, but all he could think about was the pain and torment. Finally after what seemed like eternity his father released him and he collapsed instantly. All his father then did was make a speech on how he was just the first who would oppose the cause, and suffer for it. But Blaze barely heard or understood any of that. And before his father had finished, he slipped into unconsciousness.

When he came to, he was in the exact same place he had passed out. No one had moved him to the hospital or anything. Suddenly he realized that if he was going to survive, he needed to leave this city, and he could only think of one place he could go. The Sanctuary. This he set out to do. But the moment he moved his body felt like it was on fire, and stopping only resulted in a slow cool down of the pain. But if this was his circumstance, he needed to work with it. He began to move, crawling his way towards the woods, inch by excruciating inch. This soon became his entire world, it was a bargain he made with the world, he was allowed to keep moving, and he endured constant torture for the privilege. But his only pain wasn't the agony of moving while his body screamed at him for mercy. No his true pain was the thought that still haunted him, his father had threatened the natural balance of the world, and in an effort to neutralize that threat he had gambled his chance to fight against it, and he had failed. And now he was struggling to move forward and try to reach the only place that would help him. Betrayal, remorse, despair, sadness, shame; all these things welled up inside him, and he had no one to express them to. Eventually, after an hour or so, he reached the city gate, and this brought just a little hope to him, he still had miles to go. But he knew that he had to try. He kept pushing himself forward, and the pain did not relent. Once again he reached a landmark, that even though still blind he could never have missed, a crater in the road. This reason that he had not met any travelers was this crater. It prevented any form of non agile feet from crossing, as the land around the road was too rocky for any less either. And carts? Forget it. This was good news to Blaze through, for his path did not lead towards the crater, but back away from it about five yards and then sideways for half a mile, where he would reach the woods he was seeking.

This of course meant more time that would be spent in agony from his wounds and shame. Inch by torturous inch Blaze made progress. And after two eternities he reached the woods. Here was the most dangerous part of his journey. On foot and with eyes this would be no more dangerous than riding a bike. Buy crawling due to pain and blindness, he could easily be lost, and it would be certainly be more painful. And so he started, hoping against hope that he would stay on track. And he was right, it was insanely more painful, and for the first time since starting, he stopped. It was too much, every time he scooted over a pine needle it attacked his wounds, the same thing happened whenever he crossed over a root or a small bush. He gave up, he would die here and he didn't have the strength to fight anymore. His city turned not only on him but the world and as a consequence, he would never see his friends again. Especially Nancy, He had never known it, but now he knew, he really liked her. The loved the way she bended, flowing as gracefully yet as powerfully as the water, she moved the same way. He could picture perfectly the way her hair flowed in a breeze. For the first time in hours, he actually had something to keep going for, and he did. Though the pain attacked him harder than ever, he had something to drive him. He had to get to her. So he kept pushing forward, he still had no way to know whether or not he was going in the correct direction, or even how long he had been going, but he kept pushing. An hour passed, then two and still he kept moving, over rock and under tree. Then there was a bush in his way, it was wide but not high, and he could not risk going around it in fear of missing his destination, so he crawled over it and then it gave way under him and he rolled to one side with no hope of stopping himself. He crashed down into clearing and fell into water, the relief the water provided replaced the pain that had been the constant captor and he passed out again.

 **Ok, so that's the chapter. Again non-hate reviews are welcome, questions will be answered etc. I don't know how long it will be till the next chapter so you might want to follow it, not that I am asking you to. I hope you enjoyed it, I know it was a little depressing and there will be more like it to come but this is a hurt/comfort/adventure story so I promise it will get more upbeat. Anyway see you later!**


	2. Will Eventually Die

Chapter 2: ...Will Eventually Die

Nancy, barely dodged the boulder hurtling at her with immense velocity. After she did, however, she only heard the slightly mocking voice of it's thrower.

"Come on Nancy, get your head in the game!" yelled John, "A little bit bigger and that would have hit you."

"Sorry, guess I'm just worried about Blaze is all"

"You know Blaze can take care of himself, he is the best firebender in the world." John consoled.

"Well," the third member of their party, Suzi, entered the conversation: "That may be true, but we all know that one lucky hit can end a battle in favor of the weaker combatant. I'm kinda worried too, maybe we should go check on him."

"Look we don't even know where his lives, we have theorized that he lives in Xiaofang Guise but we don't know that. Even if we did we don't know the way, there is nothing to do but hope he shows up next week." rationalized John.

Nancy sighed and sat down on a log next to the river, still worrying about Blaze. The guy had a tendency to take things to the extreme. And she always told him it would get him into trouble, but he always replied with the same answer:

"There are people in this world who deal only in extremes, and it would be naive to think that anything less than extreme measures could stop them."

To which she always answered: "That is how to kill or permanatly injure them, but it would be wrong to not try to help them see the error in their ways, make them change, and after that, justice, not vengance will win in the end. It may seem nieve to think this way, but truthfully, it only seems that way because you don't want to face that emtreme mesures can be wrong or even downright evil."

Still it was his nature to be extreme, not that it surprised her, he was a firebender after all. Extreme was their element.

Her thoughts were interupted when she heard a crash overhead. She turned around to see a bush at the top of a short cliff overlooking the river give way. As she watched somebody in hororbly torn clothes tumbled out of it, fortunatly falling right into the water. All three of them were instantly rushing over, as concerned they were about The Santuary being discovered, they cared for human life more. Nancy dived right into the water, grabbed hold of the body, and brought him to the serface. To all their astonishment and surprise they found that the unfortunate figure was none other than Blaze. he was seemingly unconcious from the fall, wearing burnt and ripped clothes, and looked like he had desided to crawl his way here instead of walking. But the burnmarks where the worst part of him, they were everywhere. Mostly lines like he'd been wrapped in a cord red-hot metal. But none of those were on his face, though his face sported a different mark. There was a burn mark covering his eyes, though not as serious as the ones cris-crossing his body.

"Nancy, can you heal this?" Suzi asked.

"Not all of it, some of these marks will never go away, but I think I can still save his life, hold him in the water for me." Nancy replied with panic in her voice, she had no idea what could do this, let alone to Blaze, he was much too good for this to happen, and yet here he was. Her friends held him submerged underwater save for him mouth and nose so he could breath, and Nancy set to work. She poured good memories into the water around him and watched as it began to glow. Her mother giving her her first necklace, her fathers warm smile. But she could see it wasn't enough, he was nearly dead already, he must have used the last of his strengh and firy spirit to make it to them. He was drained of energy, his body had almost given up, and with him unconcious he cound no longer force his body to stay alive. She needed to pour stonger memories into the water or he would die. But she didn't have anything better. Then a memory of a feeling she had came back to her, she coundn't place what the feeling was or what had caused her to feel it. But she latched onto it and fed it into the water, the water glowed brighter with as though with renewed vigor. Then she remembered the cause of the mistery feeling: Blaze. She still had no idea what the feeling was, but she felt it everytime she saw him, and stronger still whenever he was fighting. Blaze fighting; she drew on memories of that, the way he shot fire from his hands or feet. The strong, powerful movements that sent attacks flying towards his opponent. They way he was always undetered when all of his attacks met with blockage, and he kept strikeing with those powerful strokes of flame and muscle. Those memories were what saved his life as Nancy projected them into the water and beyond doing that, she only had one thought: she could not let him die. He needed her now and she would not fail him.

It was hours before she felt safe to let him out, though he was still unconscious. She figured he was safe from death for the moment. Although they were, for a little while, not going to kill him; Blaze's scars would never fully heal, that Nancy knew for sure, though she had managed to heal the ones over his eyes. She only had a few hours before his burns would start to act up again, but she was too tired to carry on. Then she remembered, as often as her friends told her otherwise, she wasn't the best healer in the world, that title belonged to her grandmother. If anyone could save Blaze it was her. It was possible she could even heal those scars, given time.

She jumped up: "Can you guys help me get Blaze to my home, then my grandmama can heal him, she is far more practiced at healing than I am."

Her two friends nodded their consent, and John raised a bed of earth and the two of them lay him down on it. Then John moved the earth mound following Nancy's lead. Fortunately, Nancy's home was not a far as any of the others, unfortunately the way left the river quickly, so if they had an emergency they would not be near a water source to heal him. Nevertheless they pushed onward, and after a few miles and more than one complication with how to move him, they reached Nancy's home. Her home was a small village called Ziyou Liudong. Light tents comprised the majority of the buildings, but there were many unfinished and a few finished houses being built. Her people were in the process of making their dwellings more permanent.

Several people looked up as they entered the area. Neptune, the best sailor around, came up and, when he saw what the three of them had in tow, decided questions could wait and helped them move quickly through the village and into Nancy's grandmothers tent.

Blaze opened his eyes but still couldn't see anything but black, then he realized that his body didn't hurt anymore and he sat up, blinking to try and clear his eyes. Then he heard a voice he didn't recognize.

"Ah, you're awake. Good, perhaps you can tell me what it was that hurt you so."

The voice was female, and older like his grandfather's before he died at the age of 74. "I.." he began, but the woman cut him off.

"No not right this second, stay here while I go get my granddaughter, she was very anxious about you, lie down again till I return."

Blaze lay down again and continued to try and see, but he felt like there was something on his eyes, he touched them but nothing seemed to be there. There was a flapping sound and the sound of footfalls walking away, and he knew the lady had gone. Since he still could not see, Blaze closed his eyes and listened intently. He could hear a river flowing and the pounding of waves on a beach, but he couldn't tell if it was the ocean or if the river flowed into a lake. Fortunately, what his ears could not tell him his nose could. He could smell salt in the air, and it was refreshing. Then he heard the flapping noise again and reasoned that the lady had returned. This proved true but, as she had promised, she had also brought her granddaughter with her.

"Blaze!" the girl cried, and instantly Blaze knew who it was.

"Nancy?" he asked despite having no doubt that it was her.

Suddenly he felt her arms around his neck, "Blaze, we were so worried, what happened to you?"

Blaze didn't answer at first, the shame of his defeat weighed on him like an anvil. Instead of preventing the war that was coming, he had only made sure he couldn't fight in it. And for more than two reasons. So he found himself saying: "It doesn't matter, not now, not ever. It happened and is over, it is my job to move forward now." And he meant it.

She pulled away from him, "No really I want to know, anyway how can you move on from something you keep secret?"

Blaze turned his head down, though his eyes were still closed, "No, you really you don't want to know, and to answer your question: by not caring that it happened."

She paused for a moment, "I'm sorry you have to see me like this, let me go get cleaned up then we can go back to the Sanctuary and you can tell us what happened there."

"No, it's okay, stay. Anyway I can't see you right now."

"What do you mean you can't see me? Sure you can."

"No I can't, I can't see anything right now, but I'm sure it'll pass."

Suddenly Blaze felt Nancy's grandmother pull his eyes open and heard both of them take in a sharp breath. "

"What? What's wrong?" he asked, though his imagination had already guessed the truth.

"Your eyes are... are ruined" said Suzi, and Blaze could hear the pain in her voice, though he hadn't noticed she was here before.

Blaze's friend's didn't say anything else, and he just sat there trying to wrap his head around the truth: he was blinded for LIFE, nothing could change that now. Then he heard Nancy cry. The sound made him want to get up, walk over to her, put his arm around her, and comfort her. But that was impossible now. Even if his sight returned just so that he could do that, what would he say? It was his pain she was crying over. No, he could not talk this away. He needed to fight through it. So he stood up. It hurt, but he forced himself to not let that show.

"Ok let's go to the Sanctuary" he said, but Nancy's grandmother intervened.

"Oh no you don't no fighting or running for you till I say so, and that is going to be a while."

Blaze sat back down feeling put out, but the more he thought about it the more he realized he didn't even want to go to the Sanctuary. He asked for some time alone and everyone left the tent. The more he thought about it, Blaze realized that he didn't want to tell anyone what happened. Shame welled up inside him, and he didn't want anyone to know that he lost to his father when all his training had led up to that moment. It was a secret he would keep.

John wasn't sure what to think of all this. His friend had somehow managed to get himself burned, nearly to death, and John was able to do next to nothing. He felt useless. Then Nancy put a hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at her.

"Thank you for moving him, we never could have saved him if not for you." she said.

John didn't show it, but that comment meant a great deal to him, but instead he said: "Yeah, but I still want to know what happened to him."

Nancy nodded but Suzi said: "I'm more worried about what its doing to him" when Nancy and John looked at her she elaborated "A beat like that can have consequenses on the mind and spirit far more lasting and painful then even those scars or blindness. His entire character may change now and probably not for the better." And when Nancy and John continued to stare at her she explained the reason she knew all that: "I live in a monestary."

"Oh, right" said John, feeling foolish.

Two days later.

Nancy was right outside Blaze's new tent. It had been erected for him so that he could live near her grandmother, as it would be some time before he could go home, though as of yet he had not expressed any desire to do so, and when it was asked if he would tell where his family lived so that they could come and see him, he simply shrugged and said that his family "didn't care and would only come to tell him off for not dying". Yesterday some monks came to see if they could do anything for him, and though they were not able to cure his eyes they were able to help speed the process of recovery slightly. He now went for regular walks, only a mile each day but is was an improvement.

Nancy just stood there thinking over everything that happened. Suzi was likely to be proven right about his character changing, so far he had not told anyone what happened, nor expressed any interest in doing so.

"Come in Nancy" Blaze's voice called out. Nancy was startled, how had he known she was there? No matter, she went in.

"I could hear you breathing" he answered her unspoken question. And again she was baffled, he heard her, from outside the winter proof tent? That should be impossible. He was sitting up in bed, eyes closed as if awaiting something dreadful yet inevitable.

"I brought you soup" said Nancy and something like a smile appeared on his face.

"I can't see it I would just spill it" he said playfully.

"And that is why I'm going to feed you silly"

"Tell me was this your idea?" he asked grinning.

"No it was my grandmother's, why?" she answered confused.

Then he laughed, a read humorous laugh for the first time since long before his injuries, "Oh that woman, she knows us better than we know ourselves I bet!"

"While I'm thrilled you're laughing again I don't get the joke, what is so funny?" Nancy asked, truly perplexed.

"If you don't get it then I don't think it's my place to tell you, ask your mother sometime maybe."

Nancy hung her head as tears came to her eyes, and already she was crying.

"Nancy what's wrong, I can hear you crying, what did I do?" asked Blaze, all humor gone.

Nancy slowly regained her composure, "No, it's all right, my mother died a long time ago, but I still remember it like yesterday."

Blaze opened his mouth to say more but Nancy put soup inside instead. He was surprised but seemed to take the hint and continued to be fed.

That night there seemed to be a problem getting a fire going for dinner and someone asked if Blaze could start it for them. Nancy went to see and he consented. She led him outside and to the center of the village.

"Point my hand at the fire pit" he said, and when Nancy had done so he hesitated, probably remembering whatever happened she thought. Then he brought his arm back and punched at the dry logs like Nancy had seen him do a hundred times. But this time no fire issued from his hand.


	3. Nothing the Same

Chapter 3: Nothing the Same

It was a month after Blaze failed to light the fire and Suzi still didn't know what to think of it. She and John visited Blaze and Nancy every weekend instead of going to the Sanctuary, but it seemed more and more like he was conflicted with them being there, like he was glad to know they were there but at the same their presence was painful. Which Suzi understood. Whatever had happened to him had taken a hard toll.

"I don't get it, how did Blaze lose his bending?" Jahn asked her as they walked together towards the village.

"Well I don't know, but I have a guess." Suzi replied, and when John asked her to tell she elaborated: "Well whatever did this to him started by doing two things, burning his entire body and blinding him for life. This likely broke his spirit at some level, either his will to fight, or maybe caused him to questions things he thought to be undoubtable true. Or it could be other things, or even all of them, but if at any level those things changed how he views truth or how he fights or in any way disrupted his spiritual balance. Then it is quite possible that his spirit no longer had room for his bending or maybe it can't even bear the burden anymore."

John just stared at her thoroughly confused "What?" he asked knowing full well how stupid he sounded.

Suzi laughed "Blaze lost a fight, it broke his spirit and that part of it that allows him to bend fell out."

"Oh, that makes sense... I think" said John and Suzi laughed again. Laughing was a privilege that they were rarely allowed these days. "So why doesn't he tell us what happened to him?" asked John.

Suzi shook her head "I really have no idea, but I'm sure he will tell us when he is ready." But in her heart, she wondered if he would ever heal enough to tell them what happened.

Nancy worried for Blaze's sanity. The two of them were walking towards the blacksmith of the village. They were doing this because Blase wanted a sword. Sure blind men had learned to fight in some of the old stories, but Blaze wanted to craft the sword himself. And it was for this reason she feared for the integrity of his mind. But it was too late to turn back now, they were here.

The blacksmith, Bobby, looked up from his work, "Hey there, anything I can do for you?"

"You can tell me what metals you have and how much they are." stated Blaze.

Bobby laughed, "I don't charge for metals, I charge for the crafting of the tool or weapon. If you can make it yourself its free. I've mostly got Iron but I do also have a little steel and bronze."

"Blaze shrugged, I can make it, and Iron will do."

"Sure, I've got more than one forge but you can use any of them you like. Nancy would you take him to one?"

Nancy was shocked "Why would you let him be a blacksmith? He is blind!"

"I've got it Nancy, I was training to be a blacksmith at home, and there is one sword I could make with my eyes shut, good thing too." Soon Blaze was set at a forge and had felt around enough to know where everything he needed was, including the Iron. Now he was weighing the metal in his hand getting the right amount. And soon he was satisfied and had put the Iron in the furnace and had begun heating the fire up. Nancy could tell he knew exactly what he was doing, but she still worried about him. Blaze must have felt the heat to be at the right temperature but he stopped blowing the blowing-thingy that nancy did not know the name of and had begun to craft new mold. He took a large lump of clay and began forming it with his hands. About half an hour later he finished it, it took that long because he had to continuously stop and use the blowy-thingy again to melt. Although Nancy stood a good ways away from the forge she could tell that Blaze's mold was very smooth, probably perfectly smooth.

"Amazing isn't it." Bobby had joined her and was staring in awe at the scene in front of him.

Now Blaze was fumbling with something in his shirt, and finally he drew ot some kind of pendant or medallion hung around his neck. Which he then unstrung and tossed into the melted Iron. Then he set both halves of the mold near the furnace to dry and harden. After some waiting and furnace heating Blaze took the mold and placed both halves together and grabbed a pair of tongs. With these he took a piece of the red hot coal and used it to sear the molds together, but now Nancy noticed that he had made an opening in the top of the mold to pour the melted Iron-Medallion alloy in. This he now did, and then he closed off the hole, having done this he went over to the water barrel and dunked the entire thing in, but only for a second. Then he went over to the anvil and opened his mold, breaking it with his bare hands. Nancy could see that, because none of the actual metal had touched the water, the liquid inside the mold had hardened but not cooled much, it was still red hot. Then Blaze grabbed a hammer in his right hand and the handle of his new sword with the other. Despite the lost of his firebending it seemed that Blaze was still fire and heat resistant. Nevertheless he still cried out in pain when he touched the metal. Nancy heard several sharp inhalations and noticed that most of the village was now watching the show. But now Blaze was doing what he did best, channeling anger, rage, pain, control, and serenity into his work. As he brought down his hammer again and again Nancy could see again the sharp, powerful, yet controlled strikes she had come to respect and even enjoy watching that she knew from their training in the Sanctuary, there was a half an hour before he had finished with that piece of the work then he began sharpening it while it was still hot. Finally he finished and put the whole thing on the water, he left it there for a large amount of time. During which he felt the amount of liquid metal he had left and evidently decided to make another. Once he had completed the mold and set it to bake, he drew out his sword. It was like nothing Nancy had never seen before, the metal was black, not silver and it wasn't the normal sword: it was thinner but longer, not completely straight but partially curved. This was a weapon made for out pacing its opponent and delivering one fatal strike.

Blaze had just finished the second sword and was running his hands down the blades, feeling their perfection, true it had been much harder than it would have if he had been able to use his eyes, and that was one reason it took so long to make them. But they were finished now and soon it would be time to practice, not now though, now he was too tired to do anything else. He felt the heat of the furnace around him, and though he could take much more heat than the average person, the extreme heat he had been forced to utilize to make this swords was overpowering. Blaze felt his consciousness slipping away and he was out before he hit the ground.

John picked up the black weapons in awe, "Blaze made these while blind?" he asked incredulously.

"Ya, most of the village watched him, course he fainted almost as soon as he finished but still." Nancy replied.

"Well is easier if you've been training almost your whole life to make them" said Blaze. He sat up opened his eyes for a second before remembering what had happened to them and he hurriedly closed them again. Sleep provided a momentary comfort for him, he could see his dreams, and he never had nightmares. He was able to forget the harsh world he now lived in, but when he woke up, reality closed in around him like an ocean, ceaselessly pounding his mind and body with the crushing weight of all that had happened to him. Every time he moved he could still feel his scars burning all around him, every time he tried to stand the sky fell on his shoulders, even though it was only his clothing. Agony, that was his life.

Two days later.

Blaze was practicing with Bobby. Bobby was no sword fighter so he learned just as much as Blaze did. Blaze liked this, nothing hurt more then being active and he welcomed the pain. He deserved it. Blaze already knew how to wield a sword, but not how to fight while blind, Bobby didn't have a clue how to use a sword but had some ideas on how to fight blind. And so they taught each other. Bobby had now learned to hold a sword correctly, and Blaze was putting him through a exercise of blocking and he was catching on quick.

"Ok" Blaze backed away "Let's go again this time counter attack too, try to hit me, I need to learn to block too."

They went at it head on and Blaze could only feel his pain, could only hear the swinging of the swords, which he used to block or find openings. But he could sense that Bobby wasn't putting everything into the fight.

"Fight Bobby!" he yelled pushing his offence "Fight like your life depends on it!"

Blaze got through Bobby's guard and knocked him off his feet, "Because one day: It might."

Bobby laughed, "Yeah right, the war is over, and nothing like that will ever happen again. The worst I could ever face is a couple of highway robbers." Bobby looked at the blind man and was confused by the troubled look on his face. It was like he knew something Bobby didn't.

"The war was a horrible earthquake" Blaze started "But after a earthquake there always aftershocks."

Bobby wondered if this was true, at any rate none had surfaced yet and it had been more than twenty years since the war, if there were aftershocks after a war, why hadn't there been any? Bobby shook the possibility from his head, no it had been too long, there was no chance of a relapse now. Nevertheless the thought stayed with him till the next morning, when he was finally able to free himself of the horrible thoughts that plagued his very sleep.

Two months later and Blaze was still training, but only to stay in shape, he was now easily one of the best swordsmen, his skill was only hindered by his blindness, not that it was too much to handle. His only real danger in a fight was tripping because he couldn't see the ground, he had no trouble at all in the actual swordplay, his skill in hearing his opponents attacks was unprecedented. Then again, the closest anyone had ever attempted to this kind of thing was the earthbending wonder Toph, who was currently building a metal city if the rumors were to be believed. These were the thoughts that were going through Nancy's mind as the watched Blaze as he took on three other swordsmen at once, and was winning. Not that it looked like he was having an easy time of it either. Nancy watched in fascination as Blaze's two swords flew around somehow fighting three others. Suddenly Nancy saw Blaze grin, just for a second, and in that moment two of his opponents were down and their swords were several feet away. Nancy had never seen speed like that before, after he had smiled the next second he had all but won, she had watched him fight as long as she knew him, but he had never moved that fast before, she hadn't even been able to see what he'd done. In the next second it was over and his their opponent was on the ground, just as stunned as she was.

Nancy ran over to her friend he looked, no, _turned_ in her direction and when she was closer she asked him, "What was that?"

He looked confused, "What?"

"What you just did, you moved faster than I've ever seen you do! When did you learn to do that?"

Once upon a time Blaze whenever he demonstrated something new would explain it in detail so that maybe his friends could integrate something about it to their technique, but now all he did was hang his head and say "It's easier with swords."

Nancy didn't understand it! Every time she tried to get close, to provide support, to maybe even... become more than friends: he shoved her away, giving her his newly frozen over shoulder. She'd asked her grandmother about it and she said that only meant he needed more support than ever, but he wouldn't let her give it. Nor anyone else for that matter, nobody could even come close, he never let anyone in. Recently he'd got hold of a long brown coat that he now wore everywhere, didn't even take it off for fights, if you asked him what it was for he would always say it was to hide the scars. And while this was likely enough to be true, Nancy had begun to think of it as a physical form of the wall Blaze had built around himself, like if he ever took of the coat, she could get in close. But she had also begun to believe, that it was never to be.

Another month later John and Suzi still visited, but not to see Blaze. Nancy now was the one that they went to see. She never let Blaze see it, but they knew that Blaze's closed-off-ness was hurting her. True they hated to see see their friend pushing everyone away, but they had come to accept it. They had left him behind just as much as he had them. But for whatever reason Nancy couldn't, she was still trying to get him to let her in, but it only resulted in Blaze pushing her further away. John and Suzi came now to try and help her let him go. But it never helped.

"Nancy, you can't keep doing this, you're not eating, you cry yourself to sleep, and you don't train anymore. It's not healthy!" said John.

Suzi glared at him, "Not helping John. Can you let just the two of us talk, girl to girl?"

"Uh sure" John left the tent feeling uncomfortable. He walked off towards the edge of the village wondering what all this could be for, if this was some kind of punishment, what was it for? Being happy for a couple years training in the Sanctuary? What had done that horrible thing to Blaze? And how could it so bad that it could take away their friend? And that was when a fire blast flew out from the forest and barely missed him.

The attack caught him off guard and if it's aim had been true John would have been hit, but as it was John was able to block the next few attacks with ease. But what on earth was happening? Then about a dozen firebenders jumped out of the forest and started fighting with him for real, it wasn't hard blocking them all, but counterattacking was nearly impossible. Finally he found an opening and sent a wave of earth in their direction, blocking any oncoming attacks and forcing them to regroup. John immediately turned around and ran back into the village, shouting the whole time that they were under attack. Several people looked up and saw him running in, when they looked past him they saw not twelve firebenders but at least fifty charging out of the forest.

"We're under attack! Everyone! Fight back! We are under attack!"

John watched everyone get up immediately, the waterbenders were already gathering water around them, he saw Nancy and Suzi dash out of their tent and join the line that was being created, then he saw Blaze. Blaze walked out of the tent drew his swords and asked the first person he came to what was happening. But to John's surprise and anger, when he was told that firebenders were attacking, he put away his swords, walked over to his tent again and sat down at the entrance. Doing nothing. John didn't have time to deal with his friends betrayal just then though. He reached the line, and turned around to fight, but knew immediately that it was hopeless. More than a hundred firebenders had now come out of the forest, and there were less than thirty of the defenders. Nevertheless, everyone readied themselves for the fight. And when it hit, John realized that all his training was about to be the only thing keeping him alive.

There were simply too many of them, all any of the defenders could do was defend. On the rare occasion that anyone was able to knock a warrior down, ten more would attack the defender responsible. Ten minutes in and more than that many defenders had fallen, and were likely dead. The line was being driven back, and now non-benders were joining the battle on both sides. Suddenly a new player entered the battle. He wore a helmet that covered his face, so John couldn't tell anything about him, but he fought like no other firebender he had ever seen. He was probably better than Blaze was when he could firebend. And in an instant John was fighting the guy, and was on the defensive in another.

Whenever John had fought with Blaze, he could sense the amount of power that Blaze was pouring into the fight, and had come to know when Blaze was giving everything he had in the fight. But this guy? John had no idea if he was fighting at his max, but he did know that he had more in him then Blaze ever did. The amount of power that this warrior was using put Blaze to shame. But John had learned long ago that he could never beat Blaze in a fight that was purely a test of strength. No, John knew that the only way to beat his current opponent was to counter the very element he was using. Fire can't burn the ground or rock, so John had learned to fight fire by hurling boulders precisely so that they would put the fire out mid-flight and continue towards his foe. And that was was he used on his enemy now. So why did it feel like he was only delaying something inevitable? But now Nancy was fighting at this side, both of them against this unnamed menace and still they were not enough. Sure it was easier for John to not have to fight him alone, but this guy was still pressing down on them like he had faced much worse and come out the victor.

Finally John got a chance to see how the battle was going. It wasn't every defender was down, whether dead or just beaten John couldn't tell. Only he, Nancy, and Suzi were left., and Suzi was cornered: not a good position for an airbender. John turned his attention back to his masked adversary. Who seemed to be about to launch a huge attack, no not about to he jus had! John acted without thinking and launched a steady stream of earth at the attack, but it was hopeless. Suddenly Nancy's water joined his earth, and the attack slowed. John looked at it and saw something impossible, their enemy's attack was a steady stream of fire and lightning! Then two more attack collided with the masked man's. First an airbending strike, then: a sword?

Suzi had somehow escaped her predicament and now stood beside him fighting. But, unbelievably, Blaze had finally decided to fight! And had brought both his swords down on the attack. But instead of feeling relieved he felt only anger towards the man he once called his friend. But he didn't have time to do anything else. Because then a blinding white sphere started growing out of the place that all six attacks had met. It expanded so fast that Blaze was instantly enveloped in it, and before anyone had time to do anything it encompassed Nancy, Suzi and John.

Next thing John knew, he was standing in a light forest, next to his friends. Blaze was their too, but John was too confused to care. For that matter all of them were completely baffled by their new surroundings. But John's thoughts were abruptly cut off by shriek that filled his heart with an unnatural fear.

 **Ok, sorry that took so long but in my defense my wifi was down for a while so even when i did finish i couldn't post this chapter for a large amount of time. Anyway I would like to thank Two Steps From Hell for writing the song Black Blade which helped me write the scene where Blaze forged his twin swords. As always any constructive criticism is welcome, and really any kind of review would be welcomed. I've already started the next chapter so lets hope it won't take me so long to get out this time. Over and Out!**


	4. The World, the Threat, and the Healing

Chapter 4: The World, the Threat, and the Healing

Blaze had no idea what was going on, but he knew something was wrong, right after he had attacked that enormous well attack, he'd felt something change, in the ground, in the sounds that he used for sight, even in the air. For one thing, he was standing on leafy ground, he took a step and knew he was in a forest, so where were the sounds of a forest? There were no birds or insects, even the wind was silent, as if the forest was hiding from something. Then there was the air, it felt... different somehow, purer. Not that the air was cleaner, more that it was around pure things and had never felt the presence of evil before.

Then came the screech. Instantly Blaze's heart was filled with fear, but it didn't faze him. Blaze did not fear the unnatural anymore, he had felt worse. Instantly he ran off in the direction of the shriek, and promptly ran into a tree. It hurt but not much, he went around it and ran slower with his arms out stretched to feel any more trees before he crashed again. He did crash, but only right through a bush and out into the open. And now he could hear hooves. Probably ten or so horses were galloping in his direction. Suddenly two sets of hands grabbed him and pulled him back into the woods.

"What are you thinking?" Nancy asked him.

"Never mind that, what in the world is going on here and what was that screech?" asked John. "I have no idea, you guys are the ones with eyes you tell me!" Blaze answered, "What's up with those horses?"

The question threw all three of them, "Horses? What horses?" asked John then he heard them and he looked over towards them, "Oh, those horses?"

"Yes, I hear about ten of them, and they're galloping really fast, can you tell me what's happening?"

Suzi was the one to answer, "Nine black horses are chasing one white one. The white horse is carrying a woman holding what I think is a wounded child. She's like nothing I've ever seen, she's practically glowing a radiant white. But the black horses are carrying what I think are men, but they are covered in black robes, you can't even see their faces. They feel strange, like... like"

"Evil, pure evil" finished Blaze. He had never understood why people said that they could feel whether or not someone had good or bad intentions. But with these riders it was different, waves of evil, malice, and black power rolled off them. Blaze had never thought of darkness as evil, but that was how he would describe them, dark power, threatening to quench the light. Instantly Blaze knew that they had to be stopped. Whatever they wanted with the pure spirit riding the white horse, they couldn't be allowed to obtain their goal.

Arwen knew that if she could just make it to the river, she would be protected by her father's power. But the Nazgul closing in fast, and the hope of the river was too far away. Their aura was casting doubt into her mind, telling her she couldn't make it. And the closer they came to her the harder it was to throw those thoughts off. But though their power never made her slow down, the fact remained that they were upon her. One of them was now riding directly alongside her and on the other side another blocked any means of escape that way. The one riding next to her reached out with it's gauntleted hand reaching for Frodo, and to her horror Frodo was leaning towards the creature, closing the gap even faster. Time slowed down as the Nazgul hand was over Frodo's shoulder and began to close into a fist. _I failed you Frodo, I failed Aragorn, I failed all of Middle Earth!_ Arwen thought to herself, but then the Nazgul's hand was forcibly jerked away when, somebody kicked the Nazgul in the chest?

No she wasn't seeing things, a boy who couldn't be older then seventeen had just kicked the Nazgul right out of it's saddle. As she watched he jumped off it's falling body, soared over her and kicked another. But what struck Arwen was his eyes, as he had jumped over her she had seen them, and there was no way he could see a thing, they were ruined, with fire by the looks of it. Yet somehow he repeated the process yet again, kicking a third yet final Nazgul to the ground. Arwen was in disbelief, a blind boy had just saved Frodo! But she didn't have time to think about it, she pushed forward, stealing only one glance back to see her rescuer holding twin swords facing off against the three Nazgul he had knocked down.

Blaze wasn't sure if he had totally succeeded in saving the two people on the white horse, but he knew he had bought them time. Now he had to deal with the three riders on the ground, he heard the familiar sound of swords being drawn and knew that he could win. They were standing on a road or at least on very smooth ground, so he didn't need to worry about footing. The clash began, he could feel instantly that his opponents were all using large broadswords, and they were heavy. Blaze struggled to push their blades back so he started darting in and around them, but they were fast too. They blocked all his strikes, but couldn't get anywhere close to him either, so it looked like a stalemate until Blaze landed one blow. After that Blaze figured out their pattern and began to win, or he would have if two of them hadn't been sliced and another crushed by Suzi and John. Blaze sheathed his swords and began to walk in the direction the other riders had taken.

"Hey, you're welcome Blaze!" said John.

"I had it, your interference was unnecessary" Blaze answered calmly, he was not angry, but he wasn't grateful either. He didn't feel the need to be either, he would have won.

John was furious, Blaze really must have left them all behind because he didn't want to be a part of them anymore.

"Hey, you can't win every fight yourself, your very existence proves that, so don't shove everyone else away, you will get yourself killed!" he shouted.

"I know what fights I can and can't win." was the only reply he received.

John made to go after him but Suzi held him back. "John, I don't think we will be very much help to him right now anyway."

Now John was confused, "What do you mean?"

"Didn't you feel it? When you used your bending, didn't feel... harder. Like your element was fighting against you?"

That made John stop, "Now that you mention it, ya a little. But different earth feels different, this ground is really compact so I thought it was just a tougher variant. Still, it was denser then I've ever felt before." John attempted to lift a small boulder from the ground, but only got a small pebble. He strained to lift at much at he could at once, but still only levitated one the size of a chair. "This might be a problem, and that size was tough to do." he said.

"Exactly, Blaze and his swords might be far more dangerous then we are right now, the only reason we got those robed guys was because they were preoccupied with Blaze. We are going to need to do some real training to get used to this." said Suzi.

"About the robed guys, come look at this!" Nancy shouted over at them and they walked over.

If John hadn't been confused before he certainly was now, there were three black robes lying on the ground, but for what ever reason, they were empty. No body whatsoever, no swords or daggers, nothing. Had they not been killed? Impossible, nothing could take hits like those and live to tell the tale. Even if their bending was dampened, rocks were rocks and a blade of wind was a blade of wind.

"I say we take these robes and follow Blaze, if we find civilization maybe they can tell us what these things are." Everyone agreed and they set off in the direction in a fast jog.

Gandalf was beyond relieved, Arwen had, against all odds, successfully manged to outrun the Nazgul as far as the river, and brought Frodo to Rivendell, though at the edge of his strength. Elrond was tending to him now. While Arwen explained all that had happened quickly, and was even then telling how close two of the riders had come to gaining victory over her. But when she explained how the blind child had rescued her, even Elrond didn't fully believe her. A blind man or a child was still nigh absurd, but both? That was nigh impossible. Yet she she said it with such certainty that Gandalf wondered.

"Whether you believe me yet is of no consequence, for I must go out to find him: I left him doing battle with three Nazgul, and despite his acrobatic skills it is unlikely he can win that fight."

"Indeed, but at least take me with you, if all three are unharmed, you cannot not defeat them all." said Gandalf. Arwen paused for a moment then nodded her consent. But they had hardly left the building when they saw a lone figure walking along the path towards them.

"Is that him my lady?"asked Gandalf.

"Yes, it is him." was her reply.

They walked down to the gate to meet him. And found the guards blocking his path, and him trying to explain in a very strange accent, that if they would let him in he would force his way in. As Arwen ordered the guards to let the child pass, Gandalf looked him over. He knew better then anyone that appearances could not be used to guess a persons heart, but you could still learn a good deal about someone by looking at them. He was certainly a child, no older then 18, he wore a long brown coat that would have been useful in the winter, but in the summer? Gandalf was getting hot just looking at him. The strangest thing about him was that his eyes were closed, he just stood there as if he really was blind, but why close his eyes even if he was blind?

"Sorry malady, we didn't realize..." apologized the guards as they stepped aside.

"Thank you, uh, malady, I didn't want to have to hurt them." said the boy. Gandalf didn't recognize the accent, and the way he paused before saying malady made it sound like he wasn't used to courteous speech.

"It is only a small thing, compared to the debt I owe you, I am Arwen, daughter of Elrond Lord of Rivendell, what is your name?" answered Arwen.

"It's Blaze, Blaze Hurt... malady." he answered, still having difficulty with the title. "And you are...?" he addressed Gandalf.

"I go by many names, but you may call me Gandalf the Grey, or just Gandalf but please none of that 'Mr. Gandalf' business."

Blaze's face gave nothing away but his voice said 'confused now' when he answered: "Okay... Gandalf then." he turned back to Arwen, or in her general direction, Gandalf noticed he was off slightly, "You mentioned Rivendell. Is that where we are?"

"Indeed we are, and you are most welcome here. Come, you must be weary, we'll get you some food child."

"That sound great, although, three more... children, may come here and they will likely be more tired then me."

"Very well then, guard, should Blaze's friends come they are to be allowed in. Have someone bring them to the main hall for refreshments."

Arwen motioned Blaze to follow her and turned to leave, but Blaze didn't move. "Well come on then" said Gandalf and Blaze quickly followed.

The answers to some of Gandalf's questions were quickly discovered when they came to a small flight of stairs. The moment Blaze reached them, he tripped smashing his face onto the highest step.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry I'd guessed you were blind, but I didn't even think about the stairs. Are you unhurt child?" asked Arwen, worried.

Blaze got up and mumbled something indistinct.

"Speak up, son, are you unhurt?" said Gandalf.

Blaze winced, like Gandalf's words hurt more than the fall. "Don't call me that please, brings back bad memories, and I'm fine, I've had worse falls."

"You are not unhurt however," said Arwen, "You're cut."

"Am I?" Blaze touched the wound on his cheek, "This is nothing, doesn't even hurt." Blaze drew one of his swords and began using it to test the ground in front of him. He would allow no help from either one of them, and though he fell a few more times he did not gain more then a bruise from any of them. But Gandalf wondered what bad memories he had from being called "son". Perhaps his father was abusive?

Blaze sat at a table having dinner with Arwen, Gandalf, and Arwen's father: Lord Elrond. He had a difficult time eating, he had to feel around for his food and he knew he must look ridiculous, but his hosts said nothing about it.

"So you were able to defeat three Nazgul on your own, while blind?" Elrond questioned him.

"Well, I would have, but the other three who might come here, they interfered and killed them while I fought them. I would have beaten those three, but trust me when I say those three could have taken down all nine without much trouble."

"But how could you do it while blind?" Elrond pressed.

"Well it wasn't hard to know where they were, their presence was... evil, As for fighting them, all I needed to do was listen, hear the sound of the swing of the blade, of what kind of a base they've made with their feet, then just dodge and block until they make an opening. Took a couple of months to perfect the skill, but no one has beat me in a sword duel yet."

"Nobody has ever defeated you in a sword fight before? Then perhaps we can put your skill to the test?"

"You got somebody you think could beat three of those Nazgul too?"

"I have battled them before, and killed more than three, will you duel me?"

"Sure, when do you want to do it?"

"When you are rested"

"I rested well enough on the way here. I warn you: I use too swords, and I made them myself"

"Then maybe you stand a chance" said Gandalf, chuckling.

Blaze and Elrond stood only a few feet from each other each holding their respective weaponry. And each entirely confident the other posed no threat to them. At a word from Gandalf the two of them attacked, and, after several strokes, Elrond managed to cut Blaze's shoulder. Not a bad cut, not even enough to hinder him.

"You are injured, let us end the battle now, I can see that you are a good fighter even without your eyes."

 _If I give up now, I'll lose my reputation as a swordsman, if he beats me easily but thoroughly at least I will have no shame._ Blaze yelled and attacked. Elrond blocked him easily, Blaze had two swords, but Elrond had been fighting for over a thousand years. Still Blaze held his own very well, he blocked and dodged with a kind of skill Elrond had never seen before. Then Elrond was caught completely of guard when Blaze brought both his swords above his head and swung them down with all his force. Elrond blocked this attack easily, but what surprised him was what happened when Blaze held the blow, so that Elrond could not bring his sword away. Clashes like this were usually done to talk mid fight, but that wasn't what Blaze had in mind. Suddenly Elrond felt pain in his leg, and it gave out underneath him. He collapsed down onto his other knee and realized: Blaze had kicked him. He was not badly hurt however and was back up and fighting before Blaze could take advantage of his predicament. The duel went on, Blaze just barely avoiding defeat many times thank to his unprecedented style. He once even headbutted his opponent to gain a temporal advantage. Elrond was easily the superior swordsman, but Blaze wasn't just fighting with swords. This kept him at barely at bay until he also used a weapon other than his blade. He brought them into another clash, and yelled in Blaze's face, while coming down with his sword. The extra noise prevented Blaze from hearing this strike and he was knocked to the ground and Elrond put his sword to his opponent's neck.

"You are beaten, yield" said Elrond.

"Ok, ok you got me, good play yelling in my face like that." Blaze acknowledged.

"It troubles me a little that you consider it fair play to utilize such dirty tactics, though I admit, it makes you a very formidable opponent."

"Dirty tricks? Is that what you think of them? I didn't know you thought of them that way, sorry."

"Well, perhaps you can be forgiven in light of your blindness. Tell me were you born this way?" Elrond inquired.

"No, it was an injury I earned several months ago." said Blaze as he got up.

"An injury? What happened?"

"I lost a fight when my enemy burned my eyes, they will never heal."

"Burned you said? No I don't think they could heal naturally, but perhaps some magic provide the healing you need. May I see them?"

Blaze hesitated, but reluctantly opened his eyes. He heard Gandalf suck in his breath a little but didn't care. Then he felt Elrond's hands on his face, he did not touch his eyes but moved the skin around them to see from all angles.

Two hours later...

Blaze opened his eyes and saw for the first time the world he was in and now he knew it's name: Middle Earth.


	5. A Council of Strangers

Chapter 5: A Council of Strangers

"Wait so magic is real? It's not just some fantasy?" asked Nancy.

Blaze sighed, he had already explained this to the others several times, how was this so hard to grasp? "Look I don't think we are in our world anymore, this place is somehow different than the place you called home. Everything about it feels completely different. Honestly I'm surprised that your bending still works here. But in any case to them bending will appear to be just a different form of magic than they are used to seeing. After an initial shock I expect they will simply except it and take it in their stride. But yes, this world has magic and through it's power my sight has been restored."

Nancy stared for a second, then started to giggle.

"What is so funny about this?" Blaze asked confused.

"Oh, nothing its just, 'through it's power my sight has been restored' You're starting to talk like everyone else here!" as soon as she had explained she lost all control and started laughing out loud.

"It's not funny" Blaze stated, matter of fact, and the emotionless words shattered Nancy's humor with a sledgehammer.

"Why can't you just feel emotion for once!" she shouted angrily, "You just got your sight back, aren't you happy? Why don't you laugh anymore?" She was on the verge of tears now.

"I can't be happy because I don't feel any emotion at all. No joy, no wonder, no hate, no anger, no love, no anything. And I don't want to. Emotion is a waste of time and energy."

Nancy felt those sentences like serrated daggers to the heart, "Wha... What are you saying? You can't mean it! That's not true! It... it can't be!" And with that, girl who had just been laughing with true enjoyment fled the scene, crying as she never had before.

Elrond stood on one of the many balconies in Rivendell, this one overlooked the training ground. Currently there was no one there, and all was quiet. But Elrond's spirit did not reflect the atmosphere. He stood there contemplating recent events. After his and Blaze's fight three other children had arrived, and been grated entry. Strangely although Blaze knew them, not one of them carried a weapon, yet their demeanor screamed "seasoned warriors". Less then a day later Aragorn arrived with three other hobbits. The hobbits, after Frodo's safety had been confirmed for them, had quickly become friends with the three children. All this was two days ago, and it was expected that Frodo would wake up soon. Of course even when he did he would need to stay in bed for some time. Gandalf had informed him that Saruman had betrayed them by this point, and he wondered what was to become of Middle Earth. The One Ring had been found, Sauron had returned, his nine nazgul were back (or would be again soon after their defeat at the river), Saruman had joined him, Gondor was already at war, there were rumors that Rohan had joined him as well, the heir of Gondor still refused to take his rightful place as king, and the only new allies they had were four strange children only one of which even seemed to possess a weapon. Dark times were ahead, such that he did not believe that there was any real hope to be felt. That was when Nancy dashed underneath the balcony he stood on. She seemed to be crying, over what Elrond could not guess, but when she passed a fountain it reacted to her. Somehow it jerked away from her. Then things went from strange to downright inexplicable. The earth itself rose up to form a small wall and blocked her progress. She then held her hand out to the fountain and the water twirled around her arm. Elrond was stunned: this human girl was somehow controlling the water! Suddenly John came into view.

"Leave me alone John!" Nancy half cried, half screamed.

"Not till I know you're still sane, I don't want to lose another friend to mysterious circumstances."

"He's not insane he's just wrong!"

"Why does it sound like you're trying to convince yourself of that?"

Elrond couldn't help but wonder who it was they were talking about. Blaze? Not likely, he was perfectly sane, and none of the three children had displayed any form of friendship to him, nor he to them. Still, these powers that each of them had just displayed were astounding. Blaze had said that their world used different magic, but this was beyond anything Elrond had imagined, he wondered if Suzi and Blaze had similar abilities.

"What happened Nancy?" Elrond returned his attention to the children below

"He... He said that emotions were a waste of time, he has turned down feeling completely, he... he can't love anymore." Nancy said, crying every word.

"I makes sense, for him at least. Remember how he used to say that some people only deal in extremes? I think he has always been one of those people, now that his fire is gone, he doesn't even have any smoke left, his fire is fueled by emotion, that's probably is why he can't firebend anymore."

"But why? What happened to him? How did he get those scars? What happened to the Blaze we knew John?"

"I don't know, but this new guy is not our friend. He is not even human anymore, we have to focus on trying to get home."

"No"

"What?" asked John confused.

"Going home isn't our highest priority right now. We need to figure out why we are here." Nancy said.

"What do you mean, we came here on accident."

"Maybe, but I do think that we are here for a reason, think about it. When we first get here we see those evil creatures the Hobbits call Black Riders. Then we come here and we here talk of a place called Mordor, and how its shadow is getting darker or something. I think this world is on the verge of war with some kind of evil and our abilities may be essential."

"Not on the verge of, war has already begun, only far from here" said a new voice, one with a different accent than any elf Nancy or John had met.

They turned to see a tall man in travelers gear walking towards them, he had dirty-blond hair, a shield on his back and a sword at his side, and a strange horn was also over at his waist. On his shirt a white tree was depicted. Some kind of insignia was John's guess.

"But war is not a place for children, you need not bother yourself with that." He said.

John wasn't happy with that statement, though he understood where the man was coming from, he wanted to prove him wrong. So he lifted a small bolder from out of the ground then he put it back and smoothed out the ground again.

"I think war has a place for these children" he said contemptuously.

The man had a look of aw on his face when he said: "I apologize for speaking in ignorance, I am Boromir, Captain of the white city: Minas Tirith and who might you be?"

"My name is John, I am an Earthbender. And this is Nancy, a Waterbender. We also have a friend: Suzi, a Airbender."

"Indeed, well it was certainly an honor to meet you, but I must find the Lord Elrond, if you will excuse me." Boromir turned and left.

John turned back to Nancy, "So this world is at war huh. Well I guess we are unlikely to find a way home until its over, assuming your right and we were supposed to come here. I guess we had better help them."

Elrond still stood on the balcony, thinking over what he had just witnessed. So all three of the children had similar abilities, but Blaze had lost his somehow, no matter, his skills as a swordsman were nearly unparalleled. After healing his eyes, they had done a rematch, and Blaze had won that round. A little more internal deliberation, and Elrond decided to invite the four of them to the council.

Several days later, the Council of Elrond commenced: "Strangers from distant lands, friends of old. You have been summoned to answer the threat of Mordor. Middle Earth stands upon the brink of destruction. None will escape it. You will unite... or you will fall. Each race is bound to this fate, this one doom. Bring forth the ring Frodo." At his command Frodo rather awkwardly came forward and placed a golden ring on a pedestal in the center of the group. Their were murmurs around the crowd, but Blaze stayed quiet, his hearing was very acute, but he could only barely hear the whispers that the ring itself gave out. He had no idea what the words were, but he had the overwhelming feeling that if he were to but take the ring for himself, everything he had lost he could have again. His thoughts were broken when Boromir stood up.

"It is a gift! A gift to the foes of Mordor! Why not use this ring? Long has my father, the Steward of Gondor, held the forces of Mordor at bay... by the blood of our people are your lands kept safe. Give Gondor the weapon of the enemy, let us use it against him!"

Then the man Blaze had been introduced as the Dunadan stood up, "You cannot wield it, none of us can, the ring answers to Sauron alone... it has no other master."

 _Why, then, did the ring tell me it's power could restore what I have lost?_ Blaze asked himself.

Boromir turned to speak to the other man, "And what would a Ranger know of this matter?"

Seemingly outraged an elf stood up, "This is no mere Ranger, this is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. You owe him your allegiance."

Boromir looked at Aragorn in shock, "This is Isildor's heir?"

 _What's going on?_ Blaze thought. But his answer was quickly given by the elf, "And heir to the throne of Gondor."

Aragorn spoke to the elf, " _Havo dad, Legolas"_ and the elf sat down.

"Gondor has no king" Boromir said indignantly before he sat down.

Gandalf then took the lead in the discussion: "Aragorn is right... we cannot use it."

Elrond took the discussion further down the path he and Gandalf had already discussed, "We have only one choice: the Ring must be destroyed."

"Well what are we waiting for?" one dwarf asked, he picked up his ax, ran forward, and brought the thing down on the Ring. The ax shattered, and the dwarf was thrown on his backside. Frodo visibly flinched, and Gandalf looked at him worriedly. But what nobody but Frodo and Blaze saw, was a flash of an angry flaming eye.

Elrond took the opportunity to reach the point that the council had really been called for, "The Ring cannot be destroyed, Gimli son of Gloin, by ant craft that we here possess. The Ring was made in the fires of Mount Doom, only there can it be unmade. It must be taken deep into Mordor, and cast into the fiery chasm from whence it came. One of you must do this."

A silence fell over the council, as only a very few of them did not fear Mordor's very shadow. And the ones that didn't simply didn't know to.

Boromir felt that this option was far too foolish to even consider, "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more then just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the great eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled fire and ash and dust. The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly." He said.

"Have you heard nothing Lord Elrond has said? The Ring must be destroyed!" Asked Legolas, incredulous at Boromir's seeming lack of wisdom.

Gimli, however, saw things a different way. "And I suppose you think you're the one to do it!?"

Blaze was then surprised by who voiced their thoughts next, "I think Boromir has a point, it may be the ideal option, but it seems incredibly unlikely that it will work. And if it does fail Sauron gets his Ring back. It may be too risky." said John.

One of the other elves in the council voiced the question he had been puzzling over the entire time, "And who are these three children, and what are they doing here? This is no place for them."

Now Blaze wanted in on the action, "If it weren't for these four 'children' Sauron would already be in possession of his Ring!"

"I will be dead before I see the Ring in the hands of an Elf!" shouted Gimli.

And the argument commenced, Blaze and the elf to whom he spoke so harshly would probably have crossed swords if they had them here. The only ones not in the arguments were Suzi, Nancy, and Frodo. Finally Frodo, who had been listening to the growing murmurs of the ring rather than the ceaseless bickering that the others were engaged in, Spoke up: "I will take the it! I will take it! I will take the ring to Mordor!" Everyone stopped and stared at the Hobbit in wonder. "Though, I do not know the way."

Gandalf, it seemed, was not surprised, but saddened as he said: "I will help you bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, as long as it is yours to bear." he walked over and stood behind the Hobbit.

Aragorn spoke next, "If by my life or by my death, I can protect you I will, you have my sword."

"And you have my bow" said Legolas as he walked over.

"And my ax." said Gimli.

"I failed to protect my own world, but perhaps being sent here was a chance at redemption, my blades are at your disposal." said Blaze.

"Wherever there is water, air, or earth, we will fight for you." said John and he motioned the others over.

"You carry the fate of us all little one, if this is indeed the will of the council, Gondor will see it done." He took a stand with the rest of the volunteers.

"HERE", said a voice not invited to the council, everyone looked to see Sam running out from behind a bush, "Mr. Frodo's not going anywhere without me!"

"No indeed, I is hardly possible to separate you, even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are not!" said Elrond.

"You might wish you hadn't said that..." said Blaze.

Everyone looked at him in surprise, but then a set of uninvited guests made their appearance, "Oi we're coming too! You'll have to send us home tied up in sacks to stop us." said Merry as he and Pippin ran forward to join the group.

"Anyway, you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission... quest... thing." said Pippin.

"Well that rules you out, Pip" whispered Merry.

"Thirteen companions... so be it." said Elrond thoughtfully. "You shall be 'The Fellowship of the Ring'"

"Great!" Pippin voiced is approval of the name, "Where are we going?" he asked. All four of the otherworlders facepalmed.

 **Well, I'm truly sorry that took so long to write, and that it was so short, but I was able to do no writing over Christmas break. And when I finally got back to it, this seemed like a good place to stop (it being where disk one of the extended edition of** ** _The Fellowship of the Ring_** **ends. Anyway, let me know what you think. And I will answer any questions you all have, though said answer may very well be "Wait and See" or something like that. Hopefully it won't take so long to get the next chapter out, but until then, see y'all!**


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